1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to methods and apparatuses for the control and destruction of agricultural pests, and more particularly to methods and apparatuses for controlled and specific application of selected electromagnetic radiation (EM) to cell membranes, organelle membranes, and organelles within the pest organism.
2. Description of Related Art
Long term and heavy use of insecticides, pesticides, and herbicides has resulted in widespread environmental damage throughout the world. Such use has particularly affected significant reservoirs of ground water, surface water, and land areas. There is therefore, a great need for a method and means of safely applying such method, for controlling and destroying agricultural pests such as nematodes, aphids, and the like, which does not pollute the environment, or harm beneficial animals, agricultural crops, or humans.
Heretofore, a wide variety of methods and apparatuses have been proposed and implemented to control harmful agricultural pests. For example, it is well known that microwave radiation can sterilize soil and kill most types of plant an animal life. However, a problem with microwave based systems and methods is that there is a concomitant destruction of beneficial plants, animals, and microorganisms. Such random destruction of beneficial organisms along with the destruction of pest organisms severely limits the applicability and usefulness of such prior methods and apparatuses. For example, the current infestation of Phylloxera in California and Europe is destroying millions of dollars worth of grapevines, however, existing non-specific microwave irradiation techniques cannot be used to kill the Phylloxera, since these techniques also kill the grapevines.
A principal drawback of prior techniques using microwave or other EM radiation appear is the use of non-coherent coupling of such radiation with the cellular structures of the pest organism. That is, in existing applications the microwave energy simply heats the water contained in the pest organisms to very high temperatures, thereby destroying them. Unfortunately, since all agricultural crops and beneficial organisms also contain water, these beneficial crops are also destroyed. Such limitations have undoubtedly been a reason these prior attempts at pest control using EM radiation have not received widespread acceptance.
There is clearly a need for a method and means of applying the same whereby agricultural pests can be controlled without the concomitant damage of other benign or beneficial organisms and without damage to the environment. Clearly, prior attempts to use EM radiation in this manner have been unsatisfactory. In order to overcome the shortcomings of prior art methods and apparatuses it is preferable to apply a frequency of EM radiation whose frequencies are not absorbed strongly by water, yet can kill agricultural pests. Moreover, such a method and must be species specific, controllable, repeatable, and applicable to both small scale mid large scale applications.
Accordingly, it is the primary object of this invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for the selective application of EM radiation to control and destroy harmful agricultural pests while minimizing direct and collateral damage to beneficial crops and other organisms.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the descriptions, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.